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When Sandstorm comes to mind, three pokemon do as well. Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Excadrill. If you're running a Sandstorm team, it's pretty much a guarantee that Exadrill and one or both of the two others will be on it. Excadrill's main strengths in Sandstorm come from its immunities to the chip damage effect, and it's access to Sand Rush and Sand Force. Unlike Swift Swim + Drizzle however, Sand Rush + Sandstorm is legal. Which is awful, because there are hardly any Swift Swim users that can pull out damage like Excadrill does. 135 Base Attack and 88 Base Speed... With Sand Rush, Excadrill caps off at 604. Good luck outrunning that. Couple that with an alright movepool and solid typing, and you get an OU behemoth that makes most pokemon run in terror.

Abilities

Sand Rush: Doubles Excadrill's Speed during Sandstorm. This is why Excadrill is horrifying, and it should be used at all times, unless for some odd reason you're running Trick Room.Sand Force: Strengthens Rock, Steel and Ground attacks during Sandstorm. In OU, the extra Rock and Ground power is huge, but it comes down to Speed versus Power. And in most cases, Speed wins.Mold Breaker: Ignores abilities that would alter your attacks. Hits through Wonder Guard, Marvel Scale, Sturdy, Levitate, Multi-Scale, etc. It's a good ability, that is sadly wasted here because of Sand Rush and Sand Force. It has it's uses but... the other abilities are just too good. You can use Excadrill with Mold Breaker outside of Sandstorm teams though, which is a nice plus.

With Choice Band and Sand Rush, Excadrill is an offensive behemoth. Earthquake catches STAB and gets Super Effective damage all over the place. Rock Slide takes out those pesky Dragon-Flying types and a few noteworthy targets.

Excadrill doesn't have the best movepool, but he does have some options for offensive moves here. X-Scissors catches Dark, Psychic and a few Grass types. Shadow Claw has less outright power and hits Ghost Types instead of Dark and Grass types, but also has that nice Critical Hit Rate bonus. Brick Break takes down Normal types and removes Reflect. Return has more base power. Excadrill's other moves provide nice coverage and... you don't have many alternatives anyway.

The first three slots are already covered. Rapid Spin support on this set gives Excadrill a utility that is very handy in OU when you have pokemon like Volcarona on your team. Swords Dance on the other hand turns you into an even bigger killing machine.

Other Options

Aerial Ace: Well it's another offensive move. Heracross is out of the OU now though, so there's no real huge threat that needs to be hit by it.Hone Claws: Boosts Accuracy and Attack, which COULD be alright with Drill Run and Rock Slide.Drill Run: A weaker and less accurate Earthquake with a critical hit rate boost. If you feel lucky, then by all means go ahead. I wouldn't advise it however.

Partners / Double / Triple Battles

Tyranitar and Hippowdon are must haves with Excadrill. You need to stop other weather effects from being active as well, so be ready to counter Ninetails and Politoed. For Ninetails, Tyranitar and Hippowdon pretty much work. For Politoed however, you'll want an Electric type or Grass type to support Excadrill. Ferrothorn, Magnezone, Rotom-W, etc.

For Double and Triple Battles, don't use Excadrill. A weakness to Lava Plume, Surf, and Earthquake ensures that he won't live for long.

Countering Excadrill

Politoed shuts down Sand Rush/Force and strikes back with Rain Boosted Surfs. Trick Room ruins Sand Rush, so that's always an option. Priority is a great option too: Kabutops, Carracosta, Dragonite, Feraligatr, Infernape, Breloom, Lucario, etc. are all good choices. Sharpedo works well too thanks to Speed Boost. If you want to shut down Excadrill's offensive efforts, Serperior with Glare and Will-O-Wisp are nice routes to take as well. Burn ruins Excadrill, as well as changing the weather. Ninetails can't switch easily, but can easily revenge kill it.

Set Name: Speedy Sandstorm Support Sweeper
EV's- 252 Attack and 252 Speed
Jolly Nature (+Speed, -Special Attack)
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Rapid Spin/X-Scissor/Shadow Claw
-Rapid Spin/X-Scissor/Shadow Claw
Item Attached- Choice Band/Life Orb
Ability- Sand Rush
Strategy- Excadrill is so fast in a sandstorm. Nothing in OU can outrun it. But for the actual strategy, Earthquake is STAB, Rock Slide compliments it, and then you have 3 choices and two moveslots left. Rapid Spin gets rid of entry hazards,X-Scissor hits important Pokemon such as Reuniclus, and Shadow Claw goes well with Rapid Spin because it beats spinblockers. The item choice is power versus versatility. BTW, sorry if anything is wrong with the format because this is the first time I've done this.

Excadrill. Great Pokemon. Great design. Only 9 Ground Types and 8 Steel Types (1 of each of those Types being Arceus) are faster, but after Sand Rush kicks in, the rest are left, quite literally, in the dust.

Among those 17, 3 Ground Types and 5 Steel Types are legendaries, so you will likely not see them at all (again, 1 of each of those Types being Arceus). The remaining 9 are Diglett, Dugtrio, Flygon, Garchomp, Gliscor, and Krookodile.

The most unusual aspect has to be the defenses. Base 60 Defense and Base 65 Sp.Def with Base 110 HP means you are quasi-bulky - Substitutes won't be broken by Seismic Toss/Night Shade, but other Moves just might.

Then again, with Base 135 Attack Base 88 Speed and Sand Rush (the only Ability you should ever run outside of a Trick Room team), you have carved a wide path for a Physical Sweeper.

EQ/Drill Run depends on if you go Single (EQ) or Double/Triple without Flying Types/Levitate Ability Pokemon (Drill Run). Hone Claws helps with the non-perfect accuracy of Drill Run, Metal Claw, and Stone Edge/Rock Slide. Metal Claw for STAB and a chance at an Attack Boost, rest for simultaneous coverage and power.

And, yes, I suggested the Metronome Item. It acts as an over-time-Choice Item and still lets you decide what to use. I generally suggest it as an alternative to Choice Items because of the psych-out factor (your opponent switching into a "Choice" EQ user, then getting smacked with something else for their error).

X-scissor is clearly a better option when compared to Shadowclaw.Supereffective earthquake does the same damage as shadowclaw,as for stuff like latios..x-scissor hits it too.X-scissor's significant advantage is hitting grass types supereffectively.Although the most used grass types(virizon,breloom,ferrothorn) don't take much damage from x-scissor uncommon ones like shaymin, celebi do .Gengar is the only Pokemon that shadowclaw is useful for,which is very frail,and is owned by rockslide.Putting that aside,other than losing to bronzong frustration is >>>X-scissor

Also Sand Rush Excadrill should be having adamant nature.The only Pokemon you will lose with the loss ofspeed is another excadrill with jolly nature.Adamant excadrill still outspeeds +speed nature base 110 scarfers.

A different set from the pretty common Sand Rush but that needs a Speed Baton Passer to make it work, make it even more powerful when unleashing attacks. Even though the opponent sets up another weather, Excadrill would still be very quick not to be outspeed by Ninetales, though having the normal power of the Sand Rusher

OUCH. Base 135 Attack is nothing to sneeze at. Base 88 Speed would be, were it not being doubled by Sand Rush. Earthquake is your STAB move of death, and combines with Rock Slide to provide nearly unresisted coverage. Then we have Shadow Claw and Brick Break, which provice completely unresisted coverage. It all makes for a Pokemon that can land deadly physical hits on pretty much everything without having to go with something that's not very effective.

Item is up to you. Choice Band provides its usual boost, but with Excadrill, it might be a smidge overkill. Life Orb works fine. Bear in mind that Excadrill's Attack stat STARTS at 405, without factoring in the item.

Sand Rush is the only thing any sane person runs on their Excadrill. Its Attack is so enormous that it doesn't need the boost in power, and while Mold Breaker is a fabulous ability, it does pale in comparison to the ability to outspeed damn near everything.

Drill Dancer
Excadrill@Focus Sash
Jolly nature
Sand Rush
252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
~Swords Dance
~Earthquake
~Shadow Claw
~Brick Break
Shaking in fear yet? With one use of Swords Dance, a Jolly Excadrill hits 738 Attack. And assuming that Sand Rush is active (and it should be. It really, really should be), 604 speed. Can you say unstoppable killing machine? Earthquake for STAB, and Shadow Claw and Brick Break for unresisted coverage. I'm not even battling an Excadrill right now, but just typing this makes me want to ragequit.

Focus Sash is essential, as Excadrill's defenses are too craptastic to allow it to survive the Swords Dance turn.

An alternative means of using a Jolly nature and trying to make up for the loss of Attack power. Drill Run, Slash, and Shadow Claw all have increased odds of scoring critical hits. Shadow Claw and Brick Break have unresisted coverage.

The Scope Lens further increases Excadrill's critical hit ratio.

Sand Rush. Sand Rush. Sand Rush.

Counters:
Excadrill cuts through unprepared teams like soft butter, and its counters are not very numerous. They do exist, though. First off, Excadrill is a frail Pokemon that relies solely on its high Speed and Attack. So priority moves can stop it in its tracks. Most notably, Conkeldurr's Mach Punch, but a nice Aqua Jet would do the trick as well. It may not be standard, but Basculin can stop an Excadrill's reign of terror with a well-placed Adaptability-boosted Aqua Jet. Another way to stop an Excadrill sweep before it begins is to take away its Sand Rush advantage. Namely, change the weather. No Excadrill is gonna stay in too long if its precious sandstorm is gone. Ninetales, Politoed, hell, even Abomasnow, they'll do the trick. Cloud Nine also nullifies Excadrill's Sand Rush. Altaria gets Cloud Nine, has Cotton Guard, and is immune to Earthquake. Just watch out for Rock Slide. If you're feeling bold, then a good, solid physical wall does the trick. Weezing is immune to Excadrill's Earthquake (unless it's running Mold Breaker, which is illegal on Excadrill at the moment and even then not its best option), has the defenses to wall one of its non-STAB moves, can burn it with Will-O-Wisp, or simply just melt it down with Flamethrower. The Critical Drill set is stopped cold by anything with Shell Armor or Battle Armor.

If all else fails, I've found ragequitting to be effective.

Partners:
Tyranitar and Hippowdon, first and foremost. Excadrill's sweep will stop before it starts without a sandstorm going. And keep them alive, too, lest your opponent pull out something to change the weather. Have a Rapid Spinner at the ready if you're using the Swords Dance set, because any and all entry hazards will render a Focus Sash useless. And it's also a good idea to run something that can destroy physical walls. Heatran's enjoyed its status as a Weezing counter for some time now. And most importantly, get rid of your opponent's Conkeldurr! Sticks, stones, break its bones, doesn't matter how, just do it or your Excadrill is as good as dead.

How does this thing not get Stone Edge? Anyway, Drill Run can be quite a game changer with that crit rate and it has plenty of power. That being said, it is not ideal because Earthquake is still better. The final move is dependent on team needs really.

Teammates:
Tyranitar or Hippowdon. Otherwise, Excadrill is a splashable pokemon on any team really.

Other Options
Hone Claws can be used with Drill Run, but go with SD.
Don't be enticed by STAB Metal Claw. It's really not worth it.
Excadrill can be a great user of Rapid Spin. It resists Stealth Rock, and is immune to Toxic Spikes.
Aerial Ace is too weak for usefulness.

Counters
Excadrill will be found on Sandstorm teams, so the first option is to stop the sand all together. Politoed and Ninetails accomplish this (be careful with Ninetails). Second option is paralyze/burn it. Whimsicott handles the paralysis best with Prankster and Stun Spore.
One on one, Gliscor is the best answer to Excadrill. Immunity to ground, and neutral/resist everything else Excadrill will be throwing and launch an Earthquake back.

Sub in the first turn then start using Sword Dance. After that wreak down everything with Earthquake and Rock Slide.
252/252 + Jolly allow you to outurn others Escadrills but 172 in hp make the magical 101 hp Substitute.
Air Ballon ia a great item for Escadrill but Life Orb make insane damage.

Counters: I personally used my Machamp to take care of Excadrilll because there is not a move that Machamp can't take from Excadrill and Dynamic Punch is an easy OHKO. And obviously changing the weather after either the Tyranitar and Hippowdon is fnished makes Excadrill no longer outspeed other counters such as a Terrakion or Infernape or other Pokemon with a scarf.

Sand Rush is Excadrill's biggest selling point. In a Sandstorm, Excadrill reaches a maximum of 550 Speed if ur run Adamant, and a whopping 604 Speed if u run Jolly. Not even Ninjask and Speed Forme Deoxys can outrun that (although Ninjask outruns if it gets up a Speed Boost). And since it is a Ground type, its immune to the most common form of paralysis: Thunder Wave. As everyone knows, paralysis ruins a sweeper, and being immune to the most common form of it is a huge help. Outside of a Sandstorm, Excadrill's Speed is decent, but not nearly as impressive.

Now lets look at the other stats. It packs a massive base 135 Attack stat, which can be made even more frightening with the possibility of Swords Dance or Choice Band. It has great base 110 HP, but that is balanced out by poor defenses (base 60 Def and base 65 Sp. Def). On the other hand, its typing gives it a boatload of resistances, including a cool 4X resistance to Rock.

That Rock resistance also means it takes almost nothing from Stealth Rocks. Combined with decent Speed even outside of Sandstorms and an immunity to Toxic Spikes, Excadrill can be a fairly effective Spinner. However, since its not very defensive and lacks a recovery move, you have to tread carefully. On the other hand, unlike most Spinners, Excadrill presents a great offensive threat.

Excadrill unfortunately has a rather lacking movepool, though. You can expect Earthquake or, less commonly, Drill Run, on every set. For some reason, it also doesn't get Stone Edge, so it has to use the weaker Rock Slide. The other moves it can use include Brick Break, X-Scissor, Shadow Claw, Poison Jab, Return/Frustration, and Aerial Ace. It can get good coverage, but that also makes it rather predictable.

Being predictable doesn't always stop it, though. Excadrill can rip through teams that are unprepared. Always keep a watch out for it, especially if there's a Sandstorm raging.

drilbur is a boss in little cup that when priority users and snover are removed from a team nothing can stop it from destroying the opposing team other than another drilbur winning a speed tie. Drilbur can run pretty much any set that excadrill can the most popular being swords dance sand rush.

yep that's right. With an adamant nature Excadrill with choice scarf is a boss cause not a lot of pokemon without a choice scarf can outspeed it in OU other than accelgor, electrode, and ninjask, non of which other than maybe accelgor you actually see in OU which you dont need to really worry about. so anyway, EQ and rock slide are obvious and have been explained enough. X-scissor hits those pesky reuniclus for a bit more damage than EQ will.
Brick break hits opposing teams TTar and such and Return is a filler with a bit more power than a super effective brick break.

Excadrill, the awesome Mole with steel-claws and has it's Japanese name based off of the Japanese Mole-Monster of Godzilla. However, the crazy-cool design isn't where it stops; Like Scizor of the last POTW, he's also great in both OU AND Ubers, simply because of their niches; Scizor had Technician STAB Swords Dance Priority and Bulk, Excadril, well he has monstrous power and can outspeed anything in the sand(Barring opposing Exca who win a Speed tie and Ninjask at +1 or Deozys-S at +1 or something.) He can also pull of a Spinner set, and thanks to SD and Shadow Claw, can usually take care of Spin Blockers.

Standard sweep. EQ is potent STAB, SD is ridiculous if you set it up, Rock Slide is the perpetually better option than Stone Edge for Exca because of Speed+Flinch+Bias. Return or X-Scissor is the only variant; Return is better coverage, but X-Scissor is for hitting Reuniclus in particular.

Simple jumble of his best qualities. EQ and Rock Slide are stated prior, as well as X-Scissor and Return; However, Return can be subbed for Brick Break if you feel the need, and X-Scissor for Shadow Claw for more coverage, although both equate to losses of power, the coverage(Particularly against levitating Ghosts, as of Shadow Claw.) may be worth it. Advised against it though.

The only reason I went with this as another set is because of the move slot loss. It takes careful play for Exca to shine if he's carrying Rapid Spin, as that lost Move Slot is quite crippling. EQ and Rock Slide are the obvious choices. Shadow Claw is the preffered option here in my opinion, because it can help take out Spinblockers easily. You could also swap Rock Slide out for SD for typical OHKO-ing, but the loss of coverage devastates him. If you're not afraid of Spinblockers, you can run any of his other options, pointed out prior. Life Orb or Expert Belt is preffered, although CB can be used.

Other OptionsUbers talk, Air Balloon, Poison Jab, dedicated Spinner, Mold Breaker.
In Ubers, this guy functions very well, being able to outspeed many threats, commonly because most Ubers don't run max Speed. He's able to take care of the common Psychic-Types in Ubers with X-Scissor, and EQ is quite useful against the likes of Reshiram.Air Balloon is a perfectly suitable Held Item for Excadrill, commonly allowing a free switch in, and he can force out alot of which would normally actually beat this monster mole.Poison Jab, I myself have heard talk of it. It actually does have a bit of coverage, but nothing that X-Scissor or Return can't handle. Unless you're afraid of Exeggutor(Which isn't all that uncommon on Sun-Teams,) don't run it.
A Dedicated Spinner can be used, however it is farely out-classed by his more offensive sets. Running 252 HP/4Atk/252 Spd and Rapid Spin/EQ/Rock Slide/Filler could be used, but it's a gimmick if anything.Mold Breaker is his DW ability, but it is pretty useless compared to Sand Rush, and can't find itself on a Scarf set with Sand Force taking the cake. It's outclassed by it's other abilities, unless you're deftly afraid of Bronzong... Aagh.

Pre-Evo?
Drilbur can effectively run any set Excadril can in LC; If Hippopotas is banned from LC(I'm unsure of it myself), then Drilbur is out of a job.

Excadrill is a sweeper with a sandstorm team. First send out tyranitar/hippowdon then send out excadrill. Excadrill with sand rush would be able to go faster than most, then hit HARD. After that the other team would have a dent in their team unless they send out a mach punching Conkeldurr. K thats how i look at excadrill.

† I am a Christian and proud of it! Copy and paste this if you are too.†

I really don't like that Excadrill is only ever used in Sandstorm teams competitively. So, I like this set. It breaks the mold, in more than one way. Excadrill had Max Speed and Attack EVs, and has Quick Claw (which I find very useful, even though it's only an occasional advantage) for that extra speed, and Swords Dance to make his attack legendary. Mold Breaker is more useful due to the lack of Sandstorm. He has the traditional QuakeEdge combo, but with a slightly weaker Stone Edge (which I prefer for its improved accuracy anyway), and X-scissor for Dark and Psychic types, as well as Grass types.

Yes, I'm aware that Mold breaking Excadrill is so far unobtainable, but this is a set for simulators like PO or Smogon.

Another "different" set. Rapid Spin is invaluable to me. Entry hazards, particularly Stealth Rock, can be the bane of many teams, so having something able to take them out earlier is always a good idea. Excadrill himself gets hardly any damage from Stealth Rock, and doesn't get poisoned from Toxic Spikes. He only gets affected by Spikes therefore.
Then, the second part of him. Taking out opponents not using anything but the move Toxic for damage. He poisons the opponent, then uses Double team and Protect to stop the opponent form attacking. After a while, they faint.

Standard Excadril. Under Sandstorm, he becomes a sweeper. He gets various good attacks. It is advised to have Swords dance to make sure he can OHKO most things, but it's not necessary, and you may find having the extra move more useful.

Swords Dance
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Jolly
252 Attack/ 252 Speed/ 4 Defence
-Swords Dance
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-X-Scissor / Sandstorm
Air Balloon + SD allows for you to set up, making you insane. Earth-Slide is modified Edge-Quake. X-Scissor for coverage (although it is little needed) and Sandstorm if you're paranoid about weather, a generally unexpected move that is good when someone switches out from say, ferrothorn. The rest is standard...

Wow, Excadrill. One of the most popular pokemon in the current metagame. However, there isn't much to say about him. He has very few usable moves. All sets are more-or-less the same, and the one I was thinking of was already said. Thrice.
Anyway, Excadrill is usually used in Sandstorm teams, where Sand Rush makes it a boss. I sometimes use it as a weather counter, and it works really well. Excadrill works well in Doubles and Triples if he holds the Air Balloon. Access to RS and EQ and temporary immmunity to Ground and resistance to Rock is awesome.

Sandstorm can be useful against ignorant opponents... And you didn't really change it much, and the set is crap with a life orb...
We posted, like a minute apart, and you posted whilst I was typing...

Sandstorm is completely useless in the third moveslot. Everything that changes the weather through ability and is commonly used either outspeeds and kills you once they change the weather (Scarf Politoed, Ninetails, Scarf Abomasnow), so you can't stay in against them, and anything that changes the weather through a move (which is pretty rare, but w/e) you outspeed and KO before they can change the weather. And if you don't run Return/X-Scissor/Spin in the last slot, you either get a couple of free turns where you can't do anything or you get walled by something like Latios.

tl;dr, Sandstorm is a useless move.

And lol, LO isn't crap. All Air Balloon does is mean that you beat some other Excadrill and can stay in an extra turn against Gliscor and stuff, but with LO, you gain a ton of cool things, like the ability to KO even bulky Rotom-W at +2 and the ability to 2HKO Quagsire switch ins who can wall Air Balloon sets.

Yeah, Excadrill is standard. Not much to discuss. Adamant, not max speed EVs investment, put some in HP. Moves: Earthquake, Rock Slide, X-scissor/Brick Break and Swords Dance. Item should be life orb or air balloon, depends on your preference.

Excadrill is awesome and one of my favourite pokemon, that's my signing off comment

Hey Serebii, how you doing? Not sure how many of you guys from way back are out there, but just to let you know that I'm back, though I'm not sure how regularly I'll be on. Thanks for everything, and I hope I can continue to enjoy my time here!